In a letter to Memphis Mayor A C Wharton dated July 9, Hopson states that the school system has offered on multiple occasions to work out a payment plan and notes that there has been "no meaningful dialogue in response to our multiple offers to resolve this matter."

But Wharton said he's talked with Hopson many times about hammering out an agreement and he is again prepared to set a date and get started.

"I take mild but professional exception to the degree that the letter unintentionally cast this administration in terms of not being willing to engage in settlement talks," Wharton said, pointing out that efforts to reach an agreement go back to the tenure of former superintendent Kriner Cash.

The courts have ruled that the city owes the school system $57.5 million in education funding for money it did not contribute to Memphis City Schools for the 2008-2009 school year.

Hopson's letter is an attempt to reach an agreement before the two parties return to court in April 2015 to address the city's $88 million counterclaim.

Settlement talks won't be done in "half measures" and will include the city's counterclaim as well as other nonfinancial outlays, like in-kind services and continued Memphis police presence in the schools, Wharton said.

"Additionally, we're looking forward to working with the superintendent to re-purpose any of legacy schools that may be closed so they do not become blighted properties and remain anchors in community," he said "So there are a lot of ways we can work together to get it resolved."

Wharton would like the two sides to sit down without an arbitrator.

"I think a good Saturday morning session somewhere with maybe one councilmen involved, we could make a lot of progress," he said.

Settling this particular issue was one of his goals upon becoming City Council chairman, said Councilman Jim Strickland.

"The council, four years ago, passed a resolution encouraging the mayor and schools to mediate and when I became chair I said this is one thing I want to get done," he said.

And while the school board does not want to create hardships for taxpayers, the superintendent's attempts to collect on the debt has the board's full support, said board chairman Kevin Woods.

"Supt. Hopson has created a situation where it's a win-win for everyone," Woods said. "Where the City Council can properly budget a long-term payment plan and our kids can start to see the benefits of the dollars they've missed out on with the funding that's owed to the school system."